Are you sure? The hot dogs and pizza and I think chicken bakes are available to everyone at my Costco. They are served at an attached walk up window. There are picnic benches that anyone can use if you want to eat there.
Costcos with pharmacies let nonmembers use the pharmacy which is inside (out here and in many other places they have to do so by law).
The only cracking down is not letting nonmembers use a member’s card. A membership grants you two cards so it’s not a problem for someone and their significant other to have one. My exwife (divorced in 2006) still has my other one.
The hot dog and drink combo is always there, but other items come and go. We’ve lost churros, supreme pizza, and vanilla-chocolate swirls. There’s some sort of caesar salad now, and a hot beef sandwich.
The food they serve isn’t the highest quality, but it’s better than any fastfood restaurant. And less expensive too.
My Costco has kiosks to order food, which require a membership card. The kiosk prints out a receipt that you take to a window to get the food. This was done because the food is too inexpensive–too many people were eating and then not buying stuff in the store. (That is, homeless people were scaring off members.)
I wonder if that’s the case at mine now. I go to Costco every month or two but I haven’t ordered from the food court in years. We have (or used to) a polish sausage upgrade which is a nominal amount more than the hot dog.
Our food court is well into the building by the checkout lanes. Normally, you’d have to show your card and go through the store to get there but you don’t need to re-scan your card at the self-serve food ordering kiosks. I suppose you could lie about being there for alcohol purchases/pharmacies or one of the other ways you can enter cardless or go in the back route and say you want to hit the membership desk. But the number of people committed to cardless shenanigans to get a $2 pizza slice is probably fairly low. Plus it’s on a fairly isolated plot out in the suburbs so not much homeless foot traffic, etc to contend with.
Not really. Of the two Costcos closest to me one is on the backside of a mall maul & the other is about ½ mile from a different maul, at the edge of the extended shopping area; you have to wind your way back to them, it’s not like they’re on a main street that I’m driving by. I got the impression that they were basic hot dogs, more as a loss leader to get/keep you in the store; not a destination in & of themselves like a hot dog restaurant would be.
I’m not saying hot dog restaurants are gourmet food but if that’s your purpose for being, you better be better than say, a 7-Eleven roller dog.
Honestly, having been a member for decades, I’m not sure what legitimately qualifies one to cross the Costco border without proper documentation. I’ve only heard the usual claims (alcohol sales, optometrist, pharmacy, etc).
Speaking of Home Depot, some of their stores have a stall just outside selling hot dogs, hamburgers or other quick foods. I was in a small town a decade or two ago where the dining choices were extremely limited to the point that I considered going to Home Depot for the food.
You supposedly do have to be a member to go to the food court, as of April 2024.
If you order and pay at the little kiosks that Pleonast mentioned (assuming your Costco has them) then it goes fast. Can’t do much about the lack of seating, though.
They stopped selling it at the food courts in 2018.
Huh, i didn’t notice. Now that you mention it, i did go to Costco to get vaccinated somewhat recently. They had walk-in appointments for novavax vaccine, which is what i was looking for. (Not a member. Didn’t check out the food court.)
Costco in the Toronto area used to have Polish sausage, I think I last saw it in January 2025. Maybe they still have it, I haven’t been there since then. When I go there next month I’ll look for the smoked meat.
Costco in NY hasn’t had the Polish sausage since I became a member 18 years ago. They used to have churros but discontinued them around a year ago. And the mixed berry smoothie, a big fave of mine, has sadly been gone for longer than a year.
As for the pizza, I’ve never had an undercooked slice. I miss the Supreme option with sausage, peppers, mushrooms and onion.
Ours has the little tub sitting at the counter. I miss the onion chopper. I don’t eat many hot dogs, but when I do, they come from Costco. We stop after a weekend morning adventure (biking, trail running, hiking) for groceries and sometimes I get the dog. My spouse will take one bite and call it good. I’m glad for that because I’m not willing to share more. Lots of mustard and a tub of onions. I also miss he Polish dog, but the standard is still good.
Don’t like most of their other food, including the pizza. We do like their soft serve and occasionally split one (they are huge - we get choc/vanilla swirl).
Our “local” Costco is never very busy (we have to drive quite a ways to it). Of course, I gauge this against the other we have gone to when visiting family: The Bellingham Costco. I haven’t been there lately, but it used to be >50% BC plates. All of Vancouver shopped there. I’m guessing when we go next month, we’ll find it is a calmer, easier shopping experience. If so, I guess I can thank Trump for something.
I am coming to you live from the Goleta Costco food court.
They have: cheese and pepperoni pizza whole or by the slice, chicken bakes, hot turkey and provolone sandwich, hot dog and soda for $1.50, cold brew mocha freeze, strawberry banana smoothie, soft serve ice creams and chocolate chunk cookies.
That was one crappy hot dog. It was huge though and I couldn’t finish it. I’m calling it crappy relative to food in general. I’m not qualified to compare it to other hot dogs.
A sort of distant relative to the Costco food court hot dog is the Volkwagen currywurst, a sausage produced at a Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany initially only for its factory cafeterias. It’s now available in supermarkets and at football matches. Millions are sold annually.
